If you’re anything like most product designers, you want to be able to develop more concept designs in the same amount of time, so you can explore more design options and ultimately create a more innovative product.

Concept design is a difficult and at times frustrating process. Having to back up duplicate models of your design into separate folders, to then allow you to modify those duplicates. Meanwhile, while modifying duplicate B, you want to revisit duplicate A, so you have to clear your session to reload. The result is many directories in different folders, and at the end they need to be transferred to the real model which is no mean feat.

What are some of the common themes, issues and problems that are currently being talked about in industry on concept design and its importance to the product development process? PTC recently did a survey and they found that 92% of their customers, when asked, said their businesses could benefit financially if they had a better platform for exploring concept designs.

For many designers, being able to change and modify a concept design to evaluate new ideas is technically challenging. It can be a frustrating process, particularly when you’re working on a complex assembly, with many interdependencies.

When it comes to concept design, companies typically have a range of different paradigms that they want to use during the concept design phase. Then they want to be able to reuse this data during the design development, without losing any of the design intent. So, it isn’t a surprise that having the right tools in place is vital if you are going to make the best use of your concept design work.

Concept design is crucial to product development. It doesn’t matter whether you use traditional techniques, 2D tools, or 3D tools, getting your concept design right is vital for the subsequent stages of product development. This is where creative and innovative ideas can have the most impact; before a product have been involved in weeks of design development.